Potential of Fables as Learning Resources for Environmental Education and Its Relevance to the Merdeka Belajar Curriculum

The development of noble character, especially the awareness of protecting the environment, can be optimized
through the internalization process in learning. Children's literary media is an effective medium, especially
applied to elementary school-aged children at the golden age of character planting. Stories in children's
literature can dialogue life in an interesting, concrete, and contextual way. The fable entitled "The Story of a
Seagull and the Cat Who Teaches It to Fly" by Luis Sepulveda is one of the translated fables with the theme of
environment and family, which is considered to have the potential to be used as a learning resource for
environmental education. Research that attempts to analyze the environment's value in fables and its use as a
learning resource in the era of the Merdeka Belajar (independent learning) curriculum is still very limited.
This research aimed to; 1) describe the value of environmental education in the fable "The Story of a Seagull
and the Cat Who Teaches It to Fly" by Luis Sepulveda; 2) describe the use of fables as a learning resource for
elementary school students; 3) describe its relevance to the profile of Pancasila students in the independent
learning curriculum. This research is qualitative, using a text study approach and descriptive analysis. This
study showed that this fable can be used as a source of learning materials for elementary school students
following the theories that support student development and learning approaches, such as; meaningful learning
and constructivism, as well as relevant to the proclamation of the Pancasila student profile in the Merdeka
Belajar (independent learning) curriculum. The implication of this study is a recommendation for developing
children's literature-based learning media to internalize environmental awareness characters.
Keywords: Ecological awareness, Fables, Merdeka Belajar Curriculum